On May 30, Church of Joy, located in Koreatown, Los Angeles, hosted “New Life Festival,” a gospel outreach night, to bring the love of Christ to the unbelieving and the unchurched. With the help of a parachurch organization, Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC), and various artists, the night presented the gospel through different media besides preaching from the Word.
The event included performances from two dance teams: one called "Impact," a dance team from Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC), a para-church ministry that focuses on college students; and Fullerside, a dance team comprised of a mixture of former members from KCCC's Impact. Also, John Riley, a spoken word artist, presented the truths of the gospel using poetic speech of spoken word. Melinda Simpson, a singer and a pianist, and David Yoon, a singer and a worship leader, each gave their performances as well.
"Impact," a dance ministry of Korea Campus Crusade for Christ, performed at Church of Joy's evangelistic event, "New Life Festival."
The event mainly targeted people of high school age to those in their mid-thirties, and most specifically, college students. The partnership of Church of Joy's English ministry and KCCC resulted in a greater proportion of college students because both ministries focus on reaching college students. KCCC has used artistic performances in the past to effectively present the gospel to college students, and New Life Festival featured this attempt to present the gospel as much as possible throughout the night by artistic performances.
The night included the preaching of the gospel from Pastor Chan Kwak, the pastor of English Ministry at Church of Joy. Speaking on John 3:16, Pastor Chan Kwak spoke on the love of God that was displayed to us through the sending of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.
The committee team for the outreach event said they planned for months in advance and prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead the night.
“We wanted all of us to invite the people in our lives, who are either nonbelievers or Christians currently not connected to a church, to hear the full Gospel presentation," said Jason Cheung, the committee team leader. "We also wanted to connect people to our Church so they can be connected with us and know Jesus further."
About 60 people attended New Life Festival. On the response sheet that the church passed out, most of the attendees stated that they have received Christ before. All of the people responded that they wanted to know more about Christ and thought that the event was great. Pastor Chan Kwak added that at least two people who came to the event committed to attending Church of Joy.
Joo Heon Lee is a student volunteer writer from the University of California, Irvine.
